How to spend a Saturday like The Snobs

We travel for six months of the year, so when we’re home, Saturday is our time to catch up with friends, reacquaint ourselves with the house and spend time in the garden. The day doesn’t begin until at least two cups of tea have gone down. We’re both news junkies, so we need the extra time to feast on the morning papers.

Although people might think they’d want a break from travelling, surprisingly, Kevin and Janetta’s ultimate Saturday would be spent on a luxe cruise.

Since we manage to confine the running of errands and appointments to weekdays, our Saturday is free to do with as we please. We’re not routine people; we thrive on variety and spontaneity. Every Saturday is different, and while we both share similar interests, we also have our own — while one of us may want to spend the afternoon with a good book or mess about in the kitchen, the other may exercise a bit of creativity and strength maintaining the garden.

Explore your backyard

If there’s one thing we always make time for on a Saturday, it’s getting out into nature. We live in a small country town in Victoria, which means there are some great treks and walks around.

One benefit of living in the countryside is that when we go for walks, we’ve got cows, paddocks, mountains and open skies as our backdrop. The soundtrack to our Saturday is peace and quiet, with the occasional warbling of magpies or screeching of excited galahs.

Savour every bite

For The Snobs, every Saturday looks different; the pair thrive on spontaneity and variety.

Before we were on Travel Guides, we were restaurant judges, and as our ever-expanding waistlines would then attest, we love good food, and Saturday has become our foodie day.

There’s usually a farmer’s market somewhere close, and turning a basket of goodies into a meal is what Saturday afternoon is all about. If it’s a super-lazy Saturday, careful avoidance of the markets means the restaurant option needs to be exercised. Either way, we’re happy and our Saturday is complete.

In our house, there’s just the two of us, so while it would be very easy to never put in a bit of extra effort to make Saturday special, we do. We get the best glassware and dinnerware out, style the table as if we are having guests over, then sit down to enjoy what we’ve spent a large portion of the day preparing. Call it a date night if you like, we just call it a 5-star Saturday.

Share the laughs

Even though we’re retired, a lot of our friends aren’t, so weekends are important catch-up times. Most Saturdays, we join them at one of the many local cafes, sit outside and spend the morning swapping tales. It’s compelling entertainment and makes the Saturday experience richer than any other day of the week.

There’s no doubt we have the best job in the world, but travelling for half the year means we miss certain milestone events, so when we are in town, it’s important to make time to catch up properly, and Saturday is a great time for this as everyone feels more relaxed.

We have a separate cottage attached to our house and we often have friends from Melbourne or beyond stay for the weekend.

We enjoy a “rattle them pots and pans” session in the kitchen, and preparing a Saturday-night meal for friends can absorb the entire afternoon.

Having them stay over gives us more time to show them around our cute little town. Even when we’re at home, we fall into Travel Guides mode.

Our ultimate Saturday

Although people might think we’d want a break from travelling, surprisingly our ultimate Saturday would look like this: Being chauffeured to Melbourne airport and enjoying a quick session in the airline lounge before boarding a flight to Sydney.

Then we would transfer to White Bay to board a ship to places exotic. Then the ultimate travel experience — sailing out of that magnificent harbour on a luxury small ship, slipping under the bridge at dusk as Saturday afternoon gently slips into night.

If we have downtime, paradoxically we want to have it at sea.

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